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piranhapicked it for kame. what can i say. i have no excuse. the love is still strong; after nobuta no produce i forgive him and yamapi any sin.
actually, that's not really fair to kame -- i think he's one of the better actors of the JE boyband troup; at least as far as i have seen so far (ninomiya is my current fave). unfortunately kame, or whoever picks roles for him, has no taste, so one must be prepared for some pain. but hey, "life is pain", sez westley.
suppli is based on the josei manga by okazaki mari (not scanlated, licensed by tokyopop), which i haven't read. it's mostly a workplace love story, taking place in an ad agency. the title does not stand for the italian snack, but is short for "vitamin supplements" -- don't ask me. i've given up trying to discern rhyme or reason behind japanese titling.
minami fujii (ito misaki) is a dedicated and successful copy writer in her late twenties who's basically married to her job -- in the first episode we see that her boyfriend has had enough of that, and breaks up with her. outwardly she is is cool and put-together, but inside she's a hopeless romantic, asking herself whether there isn't something more. enter ishida yuuya (kamenashi kazuya), a young, dissheveled slacker, who gets hired as a part-time gopher by the agency. he and fujii have a "fated" encounter the morning of ishida's first day at work wherein she finds his cell phone (hot pink! with the cutest little amigurumi vampire dangling from it -- i swear kame is an otomen), and they end up both standing at an intersection watching an ad in which a puppy runs through the rain, which has them all introspective. but they don't actually meet until later. ishida pretty much falls for fujii right away, and is spurred on by his admiration for her to get more involved in actual work than he's been before, where he discovers his creative side. but fujii has only eyes for ogiwara satoshi (eita), who is the opposite of ishida -- professional, successful, and suave (unfortunately also somewhat unscrupulous). ogiwara flirts with fujii, but he is still hung up on his on again / off again mistress tanaka mizuho (ryo), who is married. yup, she also works in the ad agency, that hotbed of amorous undercurrents.
summary opinion: meh.
i'm sure i'm supposed to feel something more than that, and the script certainly gives enough opportunity for it, what with the musings on balance between work and life, may-december romances (it's more of a may-august one), finding something meaningful as one's profession, being an executive and still a good father, ethics in dealing with clients, etc, but for the most part i never came to care for any of these people. and in fact this romantic triangle was of less interest to me than the side story about ishida, his boss/uncle, and his daughter living together, and the commitment-phobic boss's secret relationship. their interactions felt warmer and more mature to me. i don't think that was the intended reaction. :)
i am not sure how much of that was the writing, or ito's lack of acting skills. she is very beautiful in an ethereal way, but a wooden plank has more presence than she did here, and she effectively deadens kame's performance as well. the only part of their interaction i bought was the friendly bickering, but i felt no heat (they felt more like brother and sister), their intimate moments were awkward, and i actually laughed out loud during the kissing. dear japanese: stop it with the kissing. your actors are clearly neither used to it, nor able to overcome their embarrassment. standing stock still with pursed lips carefully meeting and then holding in that position is just NOT romantic or hot, ok? kame actually tries here, but ito maintains her wooden plank presence (she even leans away from him a bit), and he ends up looking silly investing emotion in kissing an unwilling piece of wood. her interaction with eita isn't any better.
the 2nd ishida triangle also detracted from my enjoyment -- one of the secretaries, watanabe yuri (asami reina) mirrors ishida's watching of fujii, and at some point she initiates a relationship. there was nothing wrong with that per se, but i think i was full up on romantic entanglements already, and didn't want to see one more person hurting. also, i didn't want ishida to get involved with her, because it didn't fit with the image i had built of him by that time.
and -- i didn't fully buy ishida's sacrifice. he thought eita was a liar and a cheat, so WTF?
while i never get tired of looking at kame's face, his performance did relatively little for me here; he seemed ... scattered to me, as if he didn't entirely get ahold of the character. i can feel the potential, but it doesn't happen, except in a few instances -- when he interacts with the kid, when he cries, when he is totally excited and in love (before everything comes crashing down). he was so endearing in those moments. but generally he felt almost as if he wasn't playing a character, but was there as himself, yet aware that he should be playing a character, and sorta stuck in between. i don't know why i think that, since i have no idea who the real kame is, so have a truckload of salt with this opinion.
i like the music, but i already don't remember much about it, which means i won't hunt down the soundtrack.
opening theme: YOU (KAT-TUN -- kame is the K in KAT-TUN. well. also the A now, but nevermind; y'all don't need to hear japanese boyband drama)
ending theme: real voice (ayaka)
insert theme: blue days (ayaka)
the translation is bad, so bad that i stopped watching and edited the subtitle files for proper english first -- if i feel up to it, i'll actually go through the show with a fine-combed tooth and correct the places where the word choice itself seems iffy to me. would be good exercise, but it would mean i'd have to watch it again, and i am not sure i want to.
there's no overacting here (yay), the setting is interesting, and the process of developing ads, deadline pressures, and cut throat competition feel realistic to me. the production values are good. this could have been fun, but as it is i think i'd only recommend this to kame completists. or, you know, if you're really bored, or want to practice your japanese listening skills. that's something japanese TV dramas are definitely good for, because of their short runs (usually just one season of 9-12 episodes), and the fact that the modern ones use relatively simple, common japanese.
ps: koike teppei sounds even happy when he sings; it just shines through his voice. awww.
actually, that's not really fair to kame -- i think he's one of the better actors of the JE boyband troup; at least as far as i have seen so far (ninomiya is my current fave). unfortunately kame, or whoever picks roles for him, has no taste, so one must be prepared for some pain. but hey, "life is pain", sez westley.
suppli is based on the josei manga by okazaki mari (not scanlated, licensed by tokyopop), which i haven't read. it's mostly a workplace love story, taking place in an ad agency. the title does not stand for the italian snack, but is short for "vitamin supplements" -- don't ask me. i've given up trying to discern rhyme or reason behind japanese titling.
minami fujii (ito misaki) is a dedicated and successful copy writer in her late twenties who's basically married to her job -- in the first episode we see that her boyfriend has had enough of that, and breaks up with her. outwardly she is is cool and put-together, but inside she's a hopeless romantic, asking herself whether there isn't something more. enter ishida yuuya (kamenashi kazuya), a young, dissheveled slacker, who gets hired as a part-time gopher by the agency. he and fujii have a "fated" encounter the morning of ishida's first day at work wherein she finds his cell phone (hot pink! with the cutest little amigurumi vampire dangling from it -- i swear kame is an otomen), and they end up both standing at an intersection watching an ad in which a puppy runs through the rain, which has them all introspective. but they don't actually meet until later. ishida pretty much falls for fujii right away, and is spurred on by his admiration for her to get more involved in actual work than he's been before, where he discovers his creative side. but fujii has only eyes for ogiwara satoshi (eita), who is the opposite of ishida -- professional, successful, and suave (unfortunately also somewhat unscrupulous). ogiwara flirts with fujii, but he is still hung up on his on again / off again mistress tanaka mizuho (ryo), who is married. yup, she also works in the ad agency, that hotbed of amorous undercurrents.
summary opinion: meh.
i'm sure i'm supposed to feel something more than that, and the script certainly gives enough opportunity for it, what with the musings on balance between work and life, may-december romances (it's more of a may-august one), finding something meaningful as one's profession, being an executive and still a good father, ethics in dealing with clients, etc, but for the most part i never came to care for any of these people. and in fact this romantic triangle was of less interest to me than the side story about ishida, his boss/uncle, and his daughter living together, and the commitment-phobic boss's secret relationship. their interactions felt warmer and more mature to me. i don't think that was the intended reaction. :)
i am not sure how much of that was the writing, or ito's lack of acting skills. she is very beautiful in an ethereal way, but a wooden plank has more presence than she did here, and she effectively deadens kame's performance as well. the only part of their interaction i bought was the friendly bickering, but i felt no heat (they felt more like brother and sister), their intimate moments were awkward, and i actually laughed out loud during the kissing. dear japanese: stop it with the kissing. your actors are clearly neither used to it, nor able to overcome their embarrassment. standing stock still with pursed lips carefully meeting and then holding in that position is just NOT romantic or hot, ok? kame actually tries here, but ito maintains her wooden plank presence (she even leans away from him a bit), and he ends up looking silly investing emotion in kissing an unwilling piece of wood. her interaction with eita isn't any better.
the 2nd ishida triangle also detracted from my enjoyment -- one of the secretaries, watanabe yuri (asami reina) mirrors ishida's watching of fujii, and at some point she initiates a relationship. there was nothing wrong with that per se, but i think i was full up on romantic entanglements already, and didn't want to see one more person hurting. also, i didn't want ishida to get involved with her, because it didn't fit with the image i had built of him by that time.
and -- i didn't fully buy ishida's sacrifice. he thought eita was a liar and a cheat, so WTF?
while i never get tired of looking at kame's face, his performance did relatively little for me here; he seemed ... scattered to me, as if he didn't entirely get ahold of the character. i can feel the potential, but it doesn't happen, except in a few instances -- when he interacts with the kid, when he cries, when he is totally excited and in love (before everything comes crashing down). he was so endearing in those moments. but generally he felt almost as if he wasn't playing a character, but was there as himself, yet aware that he should be playing a character, and sorta stuck in between. i don't know why i think that, since i have no idea who the real kame is, so have a truckload of salt with this opinion.
i like the music, but i already don't remember much about it, which means i won't hunt down the soundtrack.
opening theme: YOU (KAT-TUN -- kame is the K in KAT-TUN. well. also the A now, but nevermind; y'all don't need to hear japanese boyband drama)
ending theme: real voice (ayaka)
insert theme: blue days (ayaka)
the translation is bad, so bad that i stopped watching and edited the subtitle files for proper english first -- if i feel up to it, i'll actually go through the show with a fine-combed tooth and correct the places where the word choice itself seems iffy to me. would be good exercise, but it would mean i'd have to watch it again, and i am not sure i want to.
there's no overacting here (yay), the setting is interesting, and the process of developing ads, deadline pressures, and cut throat competition feel realistic to me. the production values are good. this could have been fun, but as it is i think i'd only recommend this to kame completists. or, you know, if you're really bored, or want to practice your japanese listening skills. that's something japanese TV dramas are definitely good for, because of their short runs (usually just one season of 9-12 episodes), and the fact that the modern ones use relatively simple, common japanese.
ps: koike teppei sounds even happy when he sings; it just shines through his voice. awww.